Red tape trouble
Leena Raju’s efforts to bring family to N.L. from India held up by red tape, lost letter
After trying for more than eight years to help her family join her in Newfoundland, St. John’s resident Leena Raju is beyond frustrated by the process.
After trying for more than eight years to help her family join her in Newfoundland, St. John’s resident Leena Raju is beyond frustrated by the process.
Now, despite putting in thousands of dollars and almost a decade of effort, she says she’s being told to start again from scratch.
Raju, who works with Eastern Health, has been living in this province alone for more than 20 years. In 2009, she began the process of helping her niece, her niece’s husband and their two children join her.
Recently, Raju invited The Telegram to have a look at the paper trail. At her downtown apartment, she went through a bundle of documents that she knows like the back of her hand.
“Day after day, when I come home, no one is here. When I go to bed, there is no one to say good night. When I wake up, no one is here. When I am driving and something happens, no one to call. That’s why I tried to do paper after paper, paper after paper. Whatever they ask. Money after money after papers,” she said.
It started with a job offer that would have seen her niece, Stella Rani, working as a childcare provider. But when it was noted that the application process would take 28 months, the job offer was rescinded by the prospective employer.
Raju then tried taking the Family Connections route through the provincial nominee program. After jumping through hoops, she was eventually told in January 2015 that Stella Rani was not only denied, but would be deemed inadmissible to Canada for five years. The reason: on an application, Raju declared her niece had never been refused a visa. As far as she knew, that was the truth. However, it turns out a work visa rejection letter was sent in 2012 after the original application, but neither Raju or her niece received it.
“My niece cannot wait for five years,” she said. “What kind of crime did my niece do for five years? That’s a mistake I did not even do — that is a part of a postal mistake or whatever. Five years. Then I wait this five years then I have to start all over the application.”
She said her niece, who she talks to all the time over Skype, couldn’t even sleep after getting that news. The family had been travelling for medicals, police checks and other things required for the immigration process for years. The process has dragged on so long that the children are being picked on at school over it.
Raju is concerned about where the letter went, and doesn’t like the idea of her identification being out there.
On top of that, Raju has spent thousands of dollars in fees, and finds the idea of starting over exasperating.
She said her former MP, Jack Harris, had been very helpful, writing letters to advocate for her family. But he was beaten in the 2015 election, and Raju said his successor, Nick Whalen, has not been accommodating. She said his office lost her papers twice, and he only called after she threatened to speak with the media. She said she was ultimately told to start again from scratch.
But after a lengthy process that she feels treated her family unfairly, Raju feels she shouldn’t have to go that route. Instead, she feels her government representative should help expedite things so she and her family don’t need to spend more years waiting.
“It’s too hard for me and my family. If I made a mistake, that’s different. OK, I made a mistake. But I did not do any mistake, and I paid everything. I spent all the time and money — you see how much paper,” she said.
Whalen’s office was contacted for comment about Raju’s experience, but he did not reply by deadline.